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For years, I have sat in dialogue rooms across from people whose politics, experiences, and understanding of the place we both call home were very different from mine.…
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An Adoptee’s Apocalypse
God has a deeper understanding of us. God gets the nuances of adoption and understands our pain—all of it, even the parts we think we’ve kept totally hidden. Jesus, too,…
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On Turning the Other Cheek (And How It Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means)
By Corey FarrIn the Bava Kamma Mishnah (the traditional Jewish interpretation of the law), a slap incurred a fine of 200 silver coins – but a backhanded slap required a payment of…
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Review of Reading While Black
By Bill CayleyReading While Black is not, in the end, just about Black Christianity, Black church history, or Black Biblical theology. Rather, it is a significant contribution to the larger Christian conversation…
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The Compass of the Beatitudes
By Terry WebbMany of Jesus’ followers were angry. They had been anticipating the culmination of what God had promised, that once again the land would be theirs. But now they were subjects…
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When Hope is Poisoned by Despair
By Susan SmithThe killing of black men by police is a relentless beating against the souls and the spirits of people who believe in justice and who operate in hope. But with…
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Jesus Isn’t on the Ballot. That Doesn’t Mean Christians Can Opt Out.
We had some solid ideas for serious change in America back then. Like putting the Amish in charge of Homeland Security and melting all of our weapons into garden tools…
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What Do You See When You Look at Protestors?
Who do we have to thank for liberating and freeing our country from the dehumanizing practice of “whites only” water fountains, schools and churches?
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Lunchtime Grace: Lessons from the Meal Line
By April KeechFor this man revealed the compassion of Christ to cover someone who was exposed, to protect someone in their nakedness, and at risk to himself, broke the rules of the…
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2020 is the Year of Religious Women Voters
We’re just 8 Sundays away from the 2020 election. Between now and then, a moral reckoning among women of faith will determine the future of this nation and, I dare…
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Inclusive Hymn Rewrite Challenge
By RLC EditorThere is nothing gratuitous about the arts right now. They are not added, they are essential—like spirituals in the hell of cotton fields, anti-war songs of the 60s, AIDS blankets…
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Why Should I Reparate?
There is a certain amount of community guilt that comes with all the benefits of being an American. As Christians, we should know this. Did you eat the fruit in…
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A Common Thread: Adaptation from Liberation is Here
By Nikole LimI was twenty years old when I first met Nekesa. I landed in Kenya to capture stories for my thesis film about women who inspire hope in their communities. A…
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For Every Time: A Prayer for Moral Revival
For every time we preached about the blood of Jesus and did not talk about the blood of Breonna Taylor…George Floyd…Ahamad Arbury…Jacob Blake…and so many more…[Say all their names!]. We…
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Faith and Politics: Which Guides the Other?
Jesus is someone who really made a change where he was, and his love was sacrificial. If that’s the Jesus that we teach, especially in my Evangelical spaces, that would…
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A Prayer for the King
I want our political system to treat every life as precious and to protect people from oppression and violence. We can then argue about different strategies, but that’s what I…
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Environmental Racism & COVID-19
The best thing that we’ve known to do is to truly take on that Jeremiah 29. How do we seek the peace and prosperity of those who don’t have the…
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Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
The Statue of Liberty is weeping at some of the viciousness of these policies. There are 92 scriptures that specifically talk about hospitality to the stranger.
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We Go There: Abortion
I theorized maybe this is not so much about being pro-life. If this is the only thing that is guiding your vote, maybe there is something deeper, a kind of…
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Repentance and Redemption Inside the White Church
I began with Charles and asked him, “As a Choctaw man who follows Jesus on the Red Road, are there parallels that you see between the politics of the White…
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My Testimony, My Party
I started with a very simple question, “We are all evangelical. We all have a testimony. How did you come to Jesus? And tell us the story of the first…
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The National Town Hall on Evangelical Faith and Politics
Politics, however, is not synonymous with partisanship. Politics is the conversations we have with each other about the decisions we make about how the polis will be led. In fact,…
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Silent Doulas: The Problem With Being ‘A Voice for the Voiceless’
And in their haste to expedite the birth process, they end up playing not the role of a good birth companion, but of an abuser, an oppressor, of someone who…
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When Children Learn They Are Black
By Susan SmithThis society does not give voice, as a rule, to the experiences little children carry about how they “learned” they were black in this country.
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Compassion Must Trump Conviction
By Jon MathieuJust because we use the Bible to make an argument does not mean the argument is loving or correct; just because we say we love someone does not mean we…
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Hurts That Hurt: A Litany for Surviving Trauma and Finding Help for Healing
For those of us who have survived war, abandonment, cancer, abuse, the loss of a loved one, or generational trauma, this litany is for us.
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With an Eye to DNC, Faith Activists Hold Revival for Social Justice
By RLC EditorFred Martin pulled out his tongs, gripping a piece of red-hot steel, from the forge and turned to place it on the anvil. Camille Mays brought the hammer down, pounding…
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The Strange Theology That Rejects Masks but Embraces Guns
Gun violence was a national health crisis long before COVID-19 hit us, is still a crisis amid the pandemic, and, unless we take action, will remain a crisis long after.
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For Christians, Is There ‘A Time to Hate?’
Hate is not found in any list of virtues. Yet, interestingly enough, we find scripture saying, “There is…a time to love, and a time to hate” (Ecclesiastes 3:8)
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Antiracism Educators, Your Sources Matter
If white people can only learn antiracism in siloed experiences, centered in whiteness, that ignore the contributions and ongoing work of people of color and women, we are doomed.
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Untethered: On Exile, Chronic Illness, and Life in a Pandemic
Every wilderness comes with an untethering and a temptation or three that forces us to reexamine our identities. In this reexamination, is a call to discover or redefine our mission…
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Federal Executions are One More Example of Trump Administration Overreach
The United States has been steadily moving away from the death penalty. State by state, executions drop nearly every year to historic lows.
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Disabilities and the Body of Christ
I think it’s more a reflection of the cultural values of strength, conformity, and health that we assume that any mention of a disability in the Christian world is also…
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Imagining a Christian Resistance
I became, in a way, an amateur scholar of fascist movements as I studied my family members involvement. What side would I be on? I always asked myself.
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Wheat and Weeds: Thoughts on Cancel Culture
When it comes to systemic injustice, we must deconstruct, defund, demolish, dismantle now and with courage. But when it comes to people? We can’t destroy the wheat for the weeds…
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The Disease Within a Disease
By Scott GarberBut while that history helps to explain how our racial hierarchy arose, it doesn’t explain why it endures well into the 21st century—much less why we’re not trying very hard…
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Political Propaganda is Destroying Christianity
Instead of loving our neighbors, “Christian” propaganda will tell us to deport them, ban them, incarcerate them, discriminate against them, outlaw them, and even bomb them. It will attempt to…
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A Sabbath of Forced Compliance
We enjoy many freedoms in America, but we don’t have the freedom to resist the wheels of commerce. Either we engage or we suffer.
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An Inheritance of Suffering: A Review of ‘This Too Shall Last’
By Sue FulmoreShe becomes a loving whistleblower uncovering the ways the church has failed to embrace suffering as part of its inheritance, and how the suffering ones have been left on the…
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Should We Tear Down All the Statues?
By Jon MathieuThis project, perfectly encapsulated in the building of a statue, has served to effectively shield white Americans from feelings of guilt or thoughts of reparation—but it has left us woefully…
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A World of Lies When the Truth Sets Us Free
A society will crumble if lying is not looked down upon and if people can’t be counted on to tell the truth the vast majority of the time.
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Healing America of its sickness through Truth and Conciliation
Beyond participating in daily protests, and advocating for local and state legislation, we are working to birth a grassroots movement for a Federal Truth and Conciliation Commission.
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Nationalism, Purity Culture, and Hijacked Christianity
By RLC EditorRamsey says she works “solely with evangelicals to shed light on how Christianity has been hijacked by nationalism and white supremacy long before Trump.”
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Taking Back the Dream: A Dozen Visions Unfold
Dreaming is holy ground. Every step we take, every risk, we are doing holy work.
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Policing Was Never Intended for Law Enforcement
It is not enough to call for reform. We cannot get new fruit from the same lynching tree. We need a new tree.
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A Response to Pro-Life Constituents
That’s when I began to understand that you can’t outlaw abortion, you have to outlove it.
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Have We Reached a Kairos Moment?
Well-meaning Christians will read books and issue public statements against racism without doing much to dismantle the system that allows the violence and discrimination to exist in the first place
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Christians Don’t Understand How Horrible Christendom Was (as Is)
Denying these historical facts is revisionism, and attempts to deflect or rationalize them are forms of dehumanization.
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But what does a Christian look like?
By Morf MorfordBut now Christians can be identified, not by clothes or accoutrements, but by . . . I’m not sure what.
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Redeeming America After Trump
New Testament Christianity produces an excess of grace and gratitude and empathy, but religious nationalists do not demand radical change of the American way.
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White Church Leaders’ Praise + Protest Pledge
By RLC EditorWe come together to express our commitment towards fighting racial injustice in our own spheres of influence and America at large.
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Waking Up
I turn my face with hand upraised overwhelmed by the rays of truth That illuminate injustice
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A Prayer Request for Tony and Update From the Campolo Family
By RLC EditorRed Letter Community, please read the letter shared by Tony’s family below: Dear Friends, On the evening of June 20 our father, Tony Campolo, had a stroke that partially paralyzed…
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The Coalition For Praise and Protest Statement
By RLC EditorIf ever there was a time for the church to regain its leadership in integrous, prophetic music that can bring about lasting change, it is now.
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On American Exceptionalism
By Jon HuckinsWhat transpired that Sunday is nothing short of a bold display of American Exceptionalism. Which, to be clear, is idolatry.
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Join Us in Prophecy Against The Pandemics
Sign the pledge to preach the truth on this July 4th weekend of the America yet to be.
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Should White Christians Be Praising God?
By Jon MathieuBut the worship was only in music and word, and perhaps thought—not in the concrete economic, social, and policy decisions of those in power.
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Virtual Dialogue in a Divided World: 10 Steps to Healthy Social Media Interaction
By Corey FarrThe bottom line is something so painfully obvious that it shouldn’t even need to be said: We – don’t – have – to – agree to just listen.
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The Dangers of Adoptees as Blessings
Anytime we look past loss and grief in order to center ourselves in a story, we’re presenting an overly simplistic, and oppressive, view of religion.
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Should Evangelicals Terminate Their Affair With the State of Israel?
By Alex AwadWhen we heed the words of the prophet Micah, we may end our political recklessness.
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All Christians Should Celebrate the SCOTUS Ruling on LGBTQ+ Discrimination
When the focus is shifted to “okay, but how does this affect us?” it misses the whole point of who it truly affects.
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Justified Anger: Film Screening
By Alex GeeExplore the true history of our nation through Dr. Alex Gee’s journey into his own ancestry.
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Let Lament Lead to These 12 Actions
To our elected representatives, you too, face one question: Will you value people over profits?
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We Need to Grieve. Seven Places to Begin.
Our grief may just have the impact of creating an antibody that will be the moral revival our country needs.
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What’s Next for the Poor People’s Campaign?
How can we remake America so that “We the People” means all of us?
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Is the Rain Not Just?
God‘s justice is intimately tied to God‘s mercy.
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United Methodists Unveil ‘Dismantling Racism’ Initiative
By RLC EditorA multi-level effort throughout the church to initiate a sustained and coordinated effort to dismantle racism.
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Why It Matters: An Interview with Sara Groves About Noticing and Naming
By Sara GrovesThe public naming of things hidden, things embedded, systemic, is prophetic.
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Deconstructing Symbols that Terrorize
We are seeing now that history is not as far in the past as we think it is, and something that is not symbolically significant to me may certainly mean…
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Protest, Prophecy, and Defunding the Police
Progress can be made as long as we continue to listen to the cries of those in the streets.
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On Trump Supporters and Good Fruit
Trump was acknowledging that his followers have less of a commitment to basic morality and common decency than they have to him.
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Jesus Spoke Truth From the Dirt, Not a Stage
I was taught a lot about how Jesus’ death was about me and almost nothing about how his death was an act of suppression and hate by those in power
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On the Way Back Down: In Memory of the Charleston 9
By Paul DemerRev. Sharon Risher reminds me that there’s purpose on the way back down from pain and life on the other side of death.
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A Starting Place for Relationship and Sex Education
We are living, sentient beings, full of life and wonder, and the way we treat each other should go some way in to reflecting that wonder.
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We Have Refused to Listen: Repentance After George Floyd’s Murder
By Chris HallThe Lord is calling us to sacrificial love, a love where the currency of our words is backed by the gold of our lives.
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There Is No ‘Other’
By Morf MorfordOur options in life were never equal, never fair, and never related to merit or work ethic.
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Two Years Later, Families Are Still Being Separated
By Gena ThomasWhen I call you brother, I mean I will fight for your right to life as if you were my brother. When you call me sister, stand up for my…
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Dying to Whiteness, Becoming Anti-Racist
By Nathan HuntWhiteness is very real, and it cannot simply be exited by saying so.
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Why Have You Forsaken Us (by The Many)
By The ManyLament is a form of protest and resistance to anything that destroys life.
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Dear Evangelical Church: A Goodbye
I felt that, short of Heaven, I had found home. Yesterday, I said goodbye.
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White Christians, It’s Time for Us to Repent
Church, White Christians, we are not Israel right now; we are Rome.
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Not Another Sunday: People of Faith Commit to Anti-Racism Work
By RLC EditorCommitting to not letting one more Sunday pass without addressing racism, white supremacy, and police brutality overtly from the pulpit.
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How Much Longer (by Common Hymnal)
Oh brother, lay your weapons down, where the river of justice rolls and all oppression drowns.
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Disembodiment, Embodiment, and Re-Embodiment
Our call as white Christians to love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly is seen in the practices of disembodiment, embodiment, and re-embodiment.
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Bless Me With Anger at White Supremacy
So that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.
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De-Creating Whiteness
By Nathan HuntIf there is to ever be an end to all this pain, all this alienation and violence, it cannot come through the racial categories we have inherited.
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What Lament Has to Do with Justice
Without lament we don’t have a vehicle for repentance and we can’t move into shalom.
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Trusting Systems With the Irreversible Power of Death
One can only hope that executing people is one of the things we don’t want to return to.
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Clearing the Temple Courts: What Jesus Did About Systemic Injustice
By Corey FarrClearing the temple was disruptive and highly controversial.
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The Return of the One Percent
By Morf MorfordIn 2020, a new one percent made its way into the public eye: the expendable.
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Racial Trauma, Resilience, and Poetry
This is a tribute to the enduring struggle of intergenerational racial trauma and the extraordinary resilience that has accompanied it.
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Beauty for Weary Souls
By Sue FulmoreIn ways which facts and arguments will never reach us, beauty has a way of bypassing our heads and going straight to our hearts.
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On Protesting: A Theological Reflection for the Privileged (like me)
By Jon HuckinsJesus disrupted the pseudo-peace to expose it for what it was; a weapon of the state to maintain the status quo.
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#SundaySermon: This Is the Way the World Ends
Today, may our whimper give way to action and compassion, for a new world and a new America.
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Four Thoughts for White Christians
By Levi YancyGod shows us that we have a responsibility to do right. Also, we have a responsibility to bring people with us on the journey.
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Genuine Freedom Is Love at Work
If freedom does not serve a purpose beyond itself then it is a self-centered trivial thing.
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Rediscipling the White Church
The problem of individualism is that many white people refuse to see ourselves as white.
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I’ve Had Enough of #Solidarity
Are we really in this together?
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Let’s Have Church! (By Loving Our Neighbors)
In seeking eternal life, are we not making choices about who we love as our neighbor?
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Hope Out of Breath: On the Lynching of George Floyd
With his face forcefully scraping the asphalt, George Floyd was also found guilty of impersonating a human being.